1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to telecommunications systems and more particularly to methods and systems for generating and providing route plans to a mobile telecommunications subscribers. The invention facilitates providing directions for a mobile telecommunications subscriber to travel from the subscriber's current location to a destination represented by a destination telephone number.
2. Description of Related Art
Recent developments in wireless telecommunications have ushered in a new era of mobility. The advent of cellular and personal communications services have enabled people to maintain communication from virtually any location. Further, advanced technology has facilitated not only wireless voice communication but also wireless data communication, such as the ability to communicate over computer networks and to send and receive faxes and text messages.
Wireless communications systems have existed for many years. In general, a wireless communications system uses mobile or fixed radios that communicate with a fixed radio tower that is in turn interconnected to a larger telecommunications network. Such systems can take a variety of forms. For example, traditional cellular communications systems provide radio coverage to a wide area, such as a city, through use of many radio towers. As another example, wireless office systems typically use 5 to 20 small radio base stations to offer radio coverage in small areas such as a school campus or hospital building. As yet another example, cordless telephones typically allow one handset to communicate with a single radio base station within a home. Most recently, personal communications services (“PCS”) have arisen as an integration of cellular, wireless office and cordless with the addition of advanced information services.
Typically, subscribers to wireless service are equipped with one or more wireless terminals or mobile stations, which may take any of a variety of forms. By way of example, a mobile station may be a telephone, a pager, a computer, a personal digital assistant (“PDA”), or any combination of these or other devices. The mobile station may be arranged to receive and/or convey information such as voice and data (e.g., fax, e-mail and other text messages) and/or other media (e.g., audio, video and graphics) and may therefore include input and output facilities such as a touch-pad, a keyboard, a camera, a display, a microphone and/or a speaker. Some advanced mobile stations recently available are even equipped with web browsing software to allow subscribers to communicate with web servers over the Internet.
In traditional cellular radio-telephone systems, geographic areas are split into smaller areas called cells, each of which is assigned a specific frequency range or code (e.g., pseudo-random number) for communication. Noncontiguous cells may reuse the same frequencies, thus avoiding interference between cells while making efficient use of allocated frequencies. The size and shape of each cell is defined by the range of a base station or radio port established by a wireless service provider at the core of the cell. Mobile stations are adapted to communicate over an air interface with these base stations, switching to the frequencies or codes of various cells as they travel from one cell to another. In addition, cells may be split into even smaller areas called sectors, by use of directional antennas or other technology.
One or more base stations in a given service area may be interconnected to a base station controller, which serves as an aggregation point for communications traffic. In turn, the base station controller is interconnected with a mobile switching center (“MSC”). The MSC is then interconnected to other switching points in the wireless network and/or a landline network, to facilitate interconnecting communications traffic between mobile stations and other switching points.
In use, when a mobile station is located in a given cell, the mobile station communicates with the MSC via the base station and base station controller. The MSC serves to interconnect traffic between the mobile station and other points in the wireless network or in another network. For instance, the MSC may convey traffic between two mobile stations in its service area; alternatively, the MSC may convey traffic between a mobile station in its service area and another switching point in the same or another network. (Alternatively, the base station controller may be interconnected to a transport network through another gateway, such as a packet data serving node (PDSN) for instance, thereby bypassing the MSC.)
As the mobile station moves from one cell to another, a hand-off takes place that allows that mobile station to be assigned a free channel in the new cell. In particular, as the signal strength between the mobile station and the base station controller becomes weaker, the MSC is informed. The MSC then initiates procedures to pass the connection to a cell that has a strong reception of the mobile station's frequency. Once the unit has been given a new channel in the new cell, the old channel in the old cell is released and made available for another user in that cell.
In order to facilitate call routing and billing in wireless communications systems, information about the subscriber and the mobile station is typically stored in a home location register (“HLR”) in the subscriber's home service area. This information includes (i) unique identifiers of the mobile station (including mobile identification number (“MIN”) and mobile serial number (“MSN”)), (ii) profile information (including an identification of the calling services available to the mobile station, and billing information enabling wireless service providers to charge the subscriber for use of the services), and (iii) location information indicating the cell and sector in which the mobile station is currently located.
As the mobile station moves outside the home service area, the mobile station registers with a visitor location register (“VLR”) in the current service area. The serving VLR in turn notifies the HLR of the current location (e.g., cell and sector) of the mobile station and obtains service profile information from the HLR. Thus, for instance, when a call is placed to the mobile station, the call can be relayed to an MSC in the mobile station's current service area as identified in the mobile station's HLR.
Most recently, wireless telecommunications networks have advanced to include intelligent network (“IN”) technology similar to that used for years in the wireline telecommunications system. A core component of an IN is a service control point (“SCP”), which provides fast, centralized processing and acts as an interface into various telecommunications databases, including, in some arrangements, the HLR and VLR. The SCP may respond to call origination requests from an MSC by sending call-setup instructions to the MSC and facilitating other services.
While advances in wireless communications have advantageously given rise to increased mobility, an issue remains: how can a mobile subscriber determine how to get from the subscriber's current location to another location? Various methods of establishing route or travel plans exist. At a most basic level, the subscriber can consult a map, pinpoint his (or her) current location and a destination location, and manually generate a route plan to get from one location to the other. Unfortunately, however, mobile subscribers usually do not have access to maps as they travel. Further, although a mobile subscriber may know where he wants to go, the subscriber may not know where he is, or the subscriber may not be where he thinks he is. Additionally, the subscriber may not know the particular address of his destination. Still further, if the subscriber is driving, the subscriber may not be able to concurrently drive, refer to map, identify a route on the map, and record-directions.
Rather than consulting a map, the subscriber may use a specially equipped wireless communications device to contact a route planning service. For example, a mobile station may be specially equipped with hardware and software necessary to interact with the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. With an appropriate arrangement, the subscriber could then specify a destination location, and the GPS system, knowing where the subscriber is located, could generate real-time directions to get the subscriber from his current location to the destination location.
As another example, provided with a wireless PDA or wireless computer that is arranged to provide Internet access, the mobile subscriber can navigate to a routing engine site on the world wide web and request directions. An example of an existing routing engine on the world wide web is located at www.mapquest.com and is hosted by MapQuest.com, Inc. Like other routing engines, the MapQuest site prompts a user to enter a starting address and a destination address. MapQuest then generates a map as well as turn-by-turn directions to travel from the starting address to the destination address. Additionally, MapQuest facilitates downloading the directions for use on a PDA.
Unfortunately, many mobile subscribers do not have access to the advanced wireless communications devices necessary to gain access to the GPS system or to an Internet site such as MapQuest. Further, most mobile stations are not currently equipped to enable a subscriber to enter text information such as starting and destination addresses. Still further, obtaining directions through interaction with an Internet site such as MapQuest suffers from some of the same deficiencies identified above. Namely, the subscriber may not know precisely where he is currently located or where he wants to go and may therefore be unable to provide the required input to the routing engine.
Still others have suggested having a subscriber communicate with a mapping or routing center in order to obtain directions. As described in Lawrence Harte et al., Cellular and PCS—The Big Picture, 11 (McGraw-Hill 1997), for instance, a dispatch center can provide directions to a subscriber automatically or upon request, and, unlike computer-based mapping systems, the directions can be adjusted for traffic, weather and construction changes. In particular, as explained by Harte et al., “Point to point message services can send directions directly to the requesting subscriber. The subscriber could use a map to find a reference marker . . . and enter the reference mark via the keypad. Dispatch centers would then send directions to the individual or multiple vehicles. The dispatcher could also send delivery directions to a truck or pickup directions for a taxi.”
Unfortunately, this method also suffers from some of the same flaws identified above. Namely, the method assumes that the subscriber can identify where the subscriber wants to go (e.g., a reference marker from a map) and can readily provide that destination location in order to facilitate generation of a route plan.
The wireless telecommunications industry has recognized a need to provide location-based services. In this regard, the industry has fortunately been saddled with regulatory requirements that can facilitate some of those services. In particular, in 1996, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission handed down an “E-911” (enhanced 911) mandate, which requires that wireless carriers (i) identify the location of a mobile station from which a 9-1-1 emergency call is placed and (ii) deliver the location (as x, y coordinates) to the called 9-1-1 emergency center. The mandate was divided into two phases. According to Phase 1, the location must be identified with an accuracy of at least cell and sector. As this information is readily available from the HLR, Phase 1 presents little technical challenge. According to Phase 2, the location must be provided with an accuracy of at least 100 meters (or 50 meters for handset-originated methods such as GPS), which is far more granular than the cell and sector information maintained in the HLR. In response, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has now proposed a new standard for “Enhanced Wireless 9-1-1, Phase 2,” now entitled “Wireless Enhanced Emergency Services” or “TIA/EIA/IS-J-STD-036” (J-STD-036), the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
According to J-STD-036, several new elements and messages are introduced into the wireless network to facilitate delivery of caller location to 9-1-1 emergency service centers. Two of the new elements are the mobile position center (“MPC”) and the position determining entity (“PDE”). As defined by J-STD-036, the MPC “determines the position or geographic location of a wireless terminal using a variety of techniques. The MPC selects a PDE to determine the position of a Mobile Station (MS). . . . The MPC is the point of interface of the wireless network for the exchange of geographic position information.” (See J-STD-036, Definitions and Acronyms”). The PDE in turn “determines the precise position or geographic location of a wireless terminal when the MS starts a call or while the MS is engaged in a call. Each PDE supports one or more position determining technologies. Multiple PDEs may serve the coverage area of an MPC and multiple PDEs may serve the same coverage area of an MPC utilizing different position determining technologies.” (Id.)
J-STD-036 presents numerous call-flows detailing the signaling messages that may pass between MSs, MSCs, MPCs, PDEs and emergency services bureaus. Generally speaking, J-STD-036 specifies that a network entity (such as an MSC or an emergency services entity) may query the MPC for the location of a mobile station, and the MPC may in turn query the PDE for the location of the mobile station in order to provide a response to the querying network entity. By way of example, when a caller dials 9-1-1 from a mobile station, the originating MSC may send a position request to the MPC, and the MPC may responsively instruct the PDE to identify the location of the mobile station. In turn, the PDE may locate the mobile station and provide the requested position information to the MPC, the MPC may convey the position information to the MSC, and the MSC may forward the position information to the emergency services entity together with a call setup message. Thus, when a 9-1-1 services operator receives the call, the location of the calling subscriber may be displayed on a map at the operator's workstation.
The industry has recognized that the burden imposed by the FCC E-911 mandate can be leveraged to achieve not only safety but also commercial advantage. In particular, if the emergency services network elements are replaced with commercially useful elements (such as gateways to 4-1-1 information centers, short message services or the Internet), assorted location-based services may become possible. Those of ordinary skill in the art have thus contemplated as possible services: personal security and response, roadside assistance, 9-1-1 call routing, mobile yellow pages, stolen vehicle recovery, direction assistance, personal/commercial valuables monitoring and recovery, and carrier zone billing. (See, e.g., http://www.accucomw.com/h3.htm).
As a specific example, those skilled in the art have recognized that real-time location data facilitated by J-STD-036 may enable a telecommunications service provider to offer a “call routing to closest location” service. According to that service, a caller may dial a special service number from the mobile station. In response, a trigger in the network would cause the MPC to obtain the mobile station's current location and forward the location to a service bureau (e.g., an interactive voice response unit (“IVRU”)) as the MSC routes the call to the service bureau. Upon connection, the service bureau would engage in a dialog with the caller, allowing the caller to specify a desired facility, such as a particular type of restaurant. In response, given the caller's current location (as provided by the MPC), the service bureau could identify the restaurant of that type closest to the caller. The service bureau could then either signal the MSC to forward the call to that restaurant or send directions to the caller for downloading to a mobile device such as a PDA.